Moving Towards a New Paradigm?

​ Last winter Mary and I left Los Angeles on a cross country bicycle trip the day after Trump was elected president of the United States. As we rode through LA westward people looked like zombies walking down the streets; in shock from the outcome of the election. It seemed that liberal LA, along with the towns to the west, went on forever. Hillary and Bernie signs were still hanging up on buildings and the people we talked to just couldn’t believe the election results. As we passed out of metropolitan Los Angeles Trump signs began to dot the landscape. This is how our trip began, a trip that would last 3 ½ months, travelling mostly through solid Trump territory. When you’re travelling by bicycle it is quite easy to meet people and in Trump territory we found the people kind, generous, and wanting the best for our country. Living in Vermont I was used to politics according to Bernie and I wondered how a whole section of the country could support a candidate such as Trump. Our first night found us camping in a wooded area where a community of homeless people lived. As we pushed eastward we saw other homeless folks pushing shopping carts filled with their meager belongings or riding on dilapidated bicycles, and others with almost nothing at all. Many were lucky to be living in run down housing surrounded by piles of junk, with falling down buildings and litter everywhere. There were no supermarkets, no fresh food available for miles on end. It was obvious that many people had no access to resources, to healthy food, to quality education or to adequate housing. This situation did not just happen, but is the result of years of neglect. The democrats, then the republicans, then the democrats, etc. did nothing for the well-being of many people. A whole swath of the country needed a change. As many saw, and still do, immigration, along with environmental regulations, decreased job opportunities. For many it was the liberal elite pulling the wool over their eyes. They needed someone in the White House that heard their plight, and Trump answered their call. As our global resource use increases low income and the middle class are increasingly getting squeezed financially. Yet, there is rarely any correlation between the increase of systemic throughput (resources needed just to keep the system going) and financial insecurity. The view of success by the global culture is what drives our present day conditions, and what is considered a successful lifestyle is high in personal throughput. A single person in the United States making $34,000 is considered having a moderate to even lower income level. When earning this amount in our culture there is not much left over after paying the mortgage or rent, car payment, buying food, and purchasing appropriate clothing to insure you maintain employment. In the United States, where resource use per capita is higher than any other country, throughput is gobbling up most of our income. The amazing part of all of this, according to Branco Milanovic ( a Serbian-America economist Branko worked for the World Bank as a leading economist in the research department and who is currently a professor at the City of New York Graduate Center, has written several books on global inequality and the data is astonishing. For more context read Economy Part 4 - Money Velocity and Debt http://www.lifecycling.net/economy---part-4.html ) is if a person earns over $34000 per year they are in the upper 1% of income levels in terms of the worldwide population, and yet these same people are finding it increasingly harder to maintain their lifestyle. Just imagine if we could change the perception of success to a low throughput society. In today’s world education usually leads to more possibility of success, and being successful in a low throughput society would be no different. The need for this type of education is evident where in the last few years students find themselves unable to pay back the loans that had paid for their education. After graduation, for one reason or another, many graduates are unable to compete in today’s economy, to insure employment, and to gain a salary that maintains a successful lifestyle. The numbers of this segment of the population is increasing. The individuals that are not deemed successful are left out and not valued pushing them to the margins of society. When they have no incentive, disillusion follows, leading to activities that cost our society dearly such as crime, drug addiction, domestic abuse, etc., adding to the resources needed to remedy these problems. Personally, at the age of 66, I love to dig dirt. I have spent much of my life in the academic world so why in the world would I love to do such menial labor. I spent many years studying the science behind our environmental problems and by digging I’ve found ways to sequester carbon, discovered ways to build structures with limited resources, and learned how with proper movement I can build strength through exercise. Digging provides the time for moving meditation and the time for just plain thinking and planning. In other words, the manual labor has meaning for me and I’m not just digging a hole or moving dirt for no apparent reason other than a salary that I can’t live on. This meaning makes all the difference. When someone asks me what I’m doing I usually tell them more than they ever want to know. This is what low throughput education gives; it gives meaning to life itself. When a person chooses this path they learn how to lower their own personal throughput, requiring less dependence on income and more dependence on imagination, education and a willingness to work hard. When one is inspired, the willingness to work hard comes easily. The costs of education has spiraled upward making it hard to meet our ever increasing budgets while college students take out exuberant loans only to find a minimum wage job after graduation with no way to pay back the loan adding to the disillusioned among the well-educated portion of the population. If a portion of the population could take the path less traveled they could build their own schools, make their own heating and water systems while learning science and math, increase their research skills, and actually use language arts as well. In other words our youth can investigate everything needed to be well educated. The budgetary strains that are in present day education would disappear. For such a different direction to occur it would take a portion of the affluent population of our society to further such a vision. They themselves would not only strive to lower their throughput in their own lifestyles but also hire many to build their housing, landscaping and beyond. In other words, the affluent provide those who choose this path the opportunity to take the leap to make such a radical personal change. At first glance those who have the skills to make vast sums of money, those who have access to resources beyond most people’s dreams would appear to be like everyone else, but when taking a closer look they will have seen a vision of the future of humanity, a future where everyone can benefit from the Earth’s gifts. Wouldn’t this be considered true success? As stated earlier Mary and I rode our bicycles past many people without the access to a livable salary, surrounded by piles of junk and broken down buildings. For me it wasn’t the poverty that disturbed me the most, it was that these folks were surrounded by resources contained in the junk piles and broken down buildings and had no skills and no education to do anything with them.